The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hibiscus plant, botanically known as Hibiscus syriacus, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Mathilde.
The new Hibiscus is a product of a breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Boskoop, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to create new Hibiscus cultivars with good vigor and improved flowers.
The new Hibiscus originated from open-pollinations of various unidentified seedling selections of Hibiscus syriacus cultivar Hamabo, not patented, in 1995. The new Hibiscus was discovered and selected by the Inventor in 1996 as a single flowering plant within the progeny from these crosses in a controlled environment in Boskoop, The Netherlands. The new Hibiscus was selected on the basis of its vigor and desirable light lavender flower color.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by cuttings taken at Boskoop, The Netherlands, has shown that the unique features of this new Hibiscus are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
Plants of the cultivar Mathilde have not been observed under all possibe environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature, light intensity, daylength, and fertility level without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Mathildexe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Mathildexe2x80x99 as a new and distinct cultivar:
1. Upright plant habit.
2. When pinched, very freely branching; dense and bushy growth habit.
3. Freely flowering.
4. Attractive and numerous light lavender-colored flowers.
Compared to the unidentified selections of the Hibiscus syriacus cultivar xe2x80x98Hamaboxe2x80x99, plants of the new Hibiscus are faster-growing, have longer lateral branches, are more freely branching, and are therefore more densely foliated and are much more freely flowering.